Better Collective recruits new head of M&A from bet365
Former bet365 international development officer Rory Raine joins Copenhagen-based affiliate
Better Collective has hired former bet365 international development officer Rory Raine as its new head of M&A.
Raine spent 10 years at the Stoke-on-Trent-headquartered firm across several roles after joining bet365 in 2011 as a customer support adviser.
After spending two years in the customer support role, Raine spent two years as a sub-editor for bet365’s sportsbook content team before advancing to the supervisor role in the team in January 2016.
In his final role at bet365, Raine led the firm in regulatory affairs in the Nordics and Northern European markets as international development officer.
In addition, he undertook project management and consultancy work in areas including payments, compliance, legal, finance, tax and marketing.
In a LinkedIn post confirming his departure, Raine said: “After 10 fantastic years, today was my final working day at bet365.
“I need to say a huge thank you to everybody at the company for their support over the years. It’s been a genuine pleasure to grow with the business and work alongside some of the best people in the industry,” Raine added.
EGR has learned Raine’s new role will see him spearhead Better Collective’s M&A team globally in new and existing markets.
Raine will be based in Better Collective’s Keele Office in Stoke-on-Trent and will report into senior director for business development and M&A Karl Pugh.
Pugh said: “We are pleased to welcome Rory to Better Collective as he will play a key role in our continuous efforts to be a consolidator in the industry.”
Better Collective has been particularly active in the M&A arena over the last six months, beginning with the £40m acquisition of Atemi in October 2020.
The firm has since become the majority owner of Mindway AI and agreed a €3.8m deal to acquire online sports betting media platform Rekatochklart.com in March.
In May, Better Collective inked its largest ever acquisition with the $240m purchase of US-based sports betting media platform Action Network.